Dir, UI/UX

About the role

User Experience Designers at Cboe are tasked with research, analysis, information architecture, design and spec documents for applications or web pages (products) while improving processes and providing tools for more efficient work for customers and operations. This requires knowledge of human factors, design, research, technology, and financial products in depth as well as attention to detail and the ability to design testable and scalable applications and components.

The UX Director leads the team that delivers this work, providing leadership, management, and design vision, directing resource allocation, schedules, and budget, and setting the design and UX standards for the team. The Director provides line management for the team as well as serving as a high-impact individual contributor. As the global representative for UX at Cboe, the Director is the senior advisor on user experience to leadership across the firm, strategizes with senior leaders across multiple functions, and promotes the adoption of UX practices and standards companywide.

Cboe operates a flexible and hybrid work environment, with teams working regularly from our offices in Kansas City and Chicago.

Responsibilities

• Lead, manage, and grow Cboe’s global UX team across design, research, and design systems.
• Own hiring, onboarding, goal setting, performance management, leveling, career development, and succession planning.
• Set UX direction and companywide standards, and engage in early requirements discussions with business owners and stakeholders to drive decisions on scope, workflow efficiency, and design approach.
• Own Cboe’s strategy for AI-enabled design and delivery, evolving the design system into an agent-consumable component library whose specifications support automated, end-to-end web application delivery, and establishing that capability as a foundation of the product development lifecycle.
• Build the team’s capability in AI-assisted design and research, setting the standards, guidelines, and guardrails for how AI tooling is used in UX work.
• Own governance of the Cboe design systems, and of digital design standards, including component and pattern governance, documentation, and design and content approval workflows with partner teams, to maintain consistency across Cboe’s internal and external digital properties.
• Own the annual UX roadmap: prioritize initiatives against business goals, allocate designers across projects, balance capacity against demand, and keep progress and trade-offs visible to technology and business leadership.
• Serve as the global representative and advocate for UX at Cboe, the primary point of contact and connection between business, product, and technology.
• Partner with leaders across Software Engineering, Product, Marketing, Communications, Graphic Design, and the business units to embed UX in product definition, support product and market launches, and expand adoption of UX best practices.
• Define and report UX metrics, benchmarks, usability, accessibility, and adoption, and use a data-driven approach to advancing UX at Cboe.
• Own relationships with external design and development partners and agencies for project-specific or ongoing engagements, as needed.
• Champion accessibility and inclusive design as a company standard, ensuring requirements are built into the product development process.
• Develop the team’s communication, presentation, and facilitation skills, and sponsor mentorship, internship, and knowledge-sharing programs that build depth across the team.
• Serve as an individual contributor when needed for key projects, augmenting team capacity to deliver business commitments.
• Represent UX in leadership reviews, annual and mid-year planning cycles, and cross-functional governance forums.
• Perform other related duties as required or requested.

Requirements

• Degree in HCI, interaction design, graphic design, or equivalent demonstrable knowledge.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in UX design or UX research, including at least 3 years directly managing designers or researchers.
• Demonstrated experience building and leading a UX function, including hiring, performance management, and career development.
• Demonstrated leadership of AI-enabled design or delivery initiatives, with a clear strategic view of how design systems, specifications, and documentation enable agentic workflows.
• Experience setting standards and guardrails for the use of AI tooling within a design or engineering organization.
• Experience owning an enterprise design system and its governance, including documentation and cross-team adoption.
• Track record of setting UX strategy and standards at scale, shaping project scope and requirements in collaboration with business stakeholders.
• Experience owning a roadmap and allocating team resources for maximum impact with competing priorities.
• Executive-level communication and influence, comfortable presenting UX concepts to senior leadership.
• Credible practitioner background, able to review research, interaction design, and design system work.
• Good working understanding of HTML, JS, and CSS and of modern front-end delivery and web platform architecture, sufficient to partner effectively with engineering.
• Practical command of accessibility standards and how to promote and incorporate them in strategic business deliverables.
• Experience with vendor selection, tooling decisions, and budget ownership.
• Experience managing external design or development partners and agencies, including scope and cost control on agency-delivered work.
• Experience in financial services, trading, or another complex regulated domain preferred.

Benefits

• Medical Coverage
• Prescription Drug Coverage
• Additional Medical Benefit
• Dental Coverage
• Vision Coverage
• 401K or Pension Company Match
• Spending Accounts
• Life and AD&D Insurance
• Retirement Savings Plan
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
• Voluntary & Additional Benefits
• Paid Time Off

Pay

The anticipated base salary range for this role is $110,500-$157,300 (applicable for US locations only). This role may also be eligible for annual incentive compensation and, where applicable, participation in Cboe's long-term equity programs.